26 Weeks and a Glucose Screen

UPDATE: In order to PASS the test and avoid the 3-hour Glucose Tolerance Test, your score needed to be less than 130 mg/dL… and.. mine was 106 mg/dL.PASSED!

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As the second trimester winds down, the girls are becoming more and more active. Today, we had our 26 week check up and everything is looking good!

Both girls are head down (crossing our fingers they stay that way) and weigh in at just under 2 pounds each. If I were only carrying one baby, my belly would be measuring 32 weeks! I’m definitely working on building them a nice house.

We had a special treat at today’s appointment, and it came in a little bottle, also known as the glucose screening test. The glucose screening test is recommended between 24 and 28 weeks to screen for gestational diabetes. This initial screening test will not give a diagnosis but will identify women who may need additional testing.

When you arrive for the glucose screen, you are given a sugar solution that contains 50 grams of glucose. The beverages come in different flavors, and I was blessed with an orange drink. Some doctors may require you to take the test on the spot, but I was given the option to bring the drink home with me and return for my blood draw later.

You are instructed to drink the entire thing in 5 minutes. After consuming the drink, you will sit and wait for exactly one hour. I was told that if you wait an hour and 15 minutes, you will skew the results. When the clock strikes an hour on the dot, the technician will take a blood sample to check your blood sugar level.

If the reading from the glucose screening test is abnormal, (high blood sugar) your practitioner will call you back for a three-hour glucose tolerance test. It is important to know that 15% – 23% of women may have an abnormal reading on the screening test, but only 2% – 5% of expectant mothers develop gestational diabetes.

I plan on taking my glucose screening test first thing in the morning. This way, I can bring a book or magazine and monitor the clock for my blood draw.

It is hard to believe that there is only one more week left in my second trimester! Time sure is flying by!